Letter: Christian consciences on the road to Rome

Sir: I would like to commend your leading article decrying the embarrassment caused to fellow Christians by the bombast of some Catholic writers - whose views sound like something dredged up from the Belloc era. Modern Catholicism has, in fact, moved on.

The wider challenge of the culture of modernity has been addressed in the agenda of the Vatican Council II, which recognised the need for fundamental change in the respect we have for the convictions and faith of others, as well as the desire for genuine dialogue in the search for justice and peace. Unfortunately, there is something in the Catholic psyche in this country that prevents movement beyond the Reformation and the redressing of old grievances. This is a real distraction from addressing the more serious issues of cultural change raised by the post-Enlightenment and Modernity.

The overall consequence is one of serious decline, with the Catholic Church recording some of the highest rates of lapsation. Within this context the personal affiliation of a few Anglo-Catholics is, quite frankly, irrelevant: as is the attempt of some writers to substitute new vision with the nostalgic flaunting of the failed convictions of a mythologised past.

Yours sincerely,

DOMINIC KIRKHAM

Canons Regular of Premontre

Manchester

7 February